Lyrics & Translation of “Tum Ik Gorakh Dhanda Ho”

Naz Khialvi (1947-2010, real name: Muhammad Siddique) was a Pakistani poet and radio broadcaster from near the city of Faisalabad, most famous for his poem “Tum Ik Gorakh Dhanda Ho”. This philosophically and spiritually rich text explores the paradoxes of religion like the prevalence of evil and injustice, selective divine...

Review: Stories of Your Life and Others

[This article contains mild spoilers.] Recently, I watched the movie Arrival (released in 2016) and was impressed by its philosophical profundity and intellectual portrayal of first contact with aliens. The movie keeps you in suspense throughout and makes you think deeply even long after it’s over. As someone interested in languages, I...

Top 5 Versions of “Tajdar-e-Haram”

In no particular order, here is my list of the top five versions of the qawwali “Tajdar-e-Haram”. You can find my full translation of the poetry here. The original by the Sabri Brothers is obviously very hard to match, but I think others have also done justice to it. Post any more versions of...